Reflection on the Care of an Aboriginal Patient

Running head: REFLECTION ON THE CARE OF AN ABORIGINAL PATIENT
REFLECTION ON THE CARE OF AN ABORIGINAL PATIENT
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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REFLECTION ON THE CARE OF AN ABORIGINAL PATIENT
The assignment would mainly focus on the importance of providing culturally
competent care to patients coming from various cultural backgrounds. Often nursing
professionals are seen to be culturally unaware of the traditions and preferences of culturally
different people. Therefore, they cannot provide culturally competent care and culturally
sensitive services (Cullen et al., 2018). The thesis statement is – “In order to develop skills
and knowledge to provide appropriate person centred care to such cohorts of people, it is
important for the professionals to develop a detailed ideas about the different demographic,
lifestyles, cultures, preferences, thinking procedures and many others. Once the nurse
develops culturally competent care, it would help the patients to develop trust on the
professionals and their compliance would increase (Fisher et al., 2016). Therefore, nursing
professionals need to develop in-depth knowledge about the different aspects of that culture
to provide proper care. In this assignment, a patient of Aboriginal background is selected and
accordingly reflection and discussion is made on the different contributing factors to ill health
and how treatment approach would be initiated.
A patient named Gary Meguro of the age 65 years and of the Aboriginal, origin had
visited the healthcare centre with symptoms of cardiovascular disorders. He is not fond of the
western healthcare system personally but the request of his sons and daughters have made
him to visit the centre today. I conducted a close analysis and found out many symptoms
present in him that showed that he was suffering from heart arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat.
Some of the important symptoms that associate with this form of heart disorders are fluttering
of the chest, racing heartbeat, chest pain and discomfort as well as shortness of breath. Light-
headedness and dizziness were also found to be present in him.
On close analysis of the statistics of the Aboriginal people affected by
cardiovascular disorder, a wide health gap can be identified between the Indigenous
Australians and that of the Indigenous Australians. Heart Foundation in the nation has

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REFLECTION ON THE CARE OF AN ABORIGINAL PATIENT
provided important statistical data that support the disorders. In the year 2016, 13% of the
total deaths occur among the Indigenous Australians occur die to heart diseases. If
comparison is made between the Indigenous Australians and that of the non- Indigenous
Australians, it can be seen that the former cohort of the population is 70% more likely to die
from circulatory disorders than that of the latter (Mitrou et al., 2014). In the year 2012-2013,
about 12% of the Aboriginal people were found to have reported of having diagnosed with
circulatory system. In comparison to the non- Indigenous Australians, the Indigenous
Australians are 20% more likely to report having the circulatory disorders. Therefore, one can
reach to a conclusion that only targeting the biological determinants might not help in
providing a holistic approach to care (Browne et al,. 2017) . Therefore, other important social
and psychological aspects are also important.
I believe that bio-psycho-social approach is the best model of care that would help
in treating the person with proper procedure. This care framework has helped professionals to
realise that only caring and providing intervention for the biological determinants of health,
the disorder will not be cured and the patient might suffer from such poor health condition
again (Chenhall et al., 2018). This model of care shows that psychological as well as social
model of care are extremely important for the nursing processionals to develop idea. In this
arena, I found that social determinant of health tend to play a very important role. Social
determinants of health determine the living conditions in the society where the individuals are
seen to take birth, grow up and survive. In case of the Indigenous Australians, a number of
social determinants of health come into play. Nurses need to develop proper critical thinking
skills by which they can identify the social determinants of health of the patient and provide
suggestions and resources to modify factors for safe living (Brewster et al., 2017).
One of the social determinants that increase the risky behaviours in the individuals
making them more vulnerable to heart disorders is poor education and health literacy. The

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REFLECTION ON THE CARE OF AN ABORIGINAL PATIENT
Indigenous Australians have low level of education rates in comparison to that of the non-
Indigenous Australians with very few people attending the higher education. Therefore, they
cannot develop ideas about how the risky behaviours make them more vulnerable to heart
disorder and the steps they need to take to prevent the disorder (Baum & Friel, 2017). Poor
health literacy causes them to make poor health decisions that results them to suffer more.
Therefore, I realised that it is important for me to educate Gary as well as help him to develop
health literacy. Once he becomes aware of the risk factors, the chances of the person being
addicted to the risky behaviours would reduce. Therefore, with this critical thinking, I allotted
him a patient education session and counselling session for behaviour change.
World Health Organisation had also selected addiction as one of the social
determinants of health that can affect the quality of life of individuals. Through my research,
I have found that smoking tobacco and drinking rates are quite higher in the Indigenous
Australians than the non- Indigenous Australians (McPhail & Macaky, 2018). One of the
main reasons for this issue is the social custom and tradition associated with the culture of the
Indigenous Australians. The researchers are of the opinion that smoking tobacco is a part of
their culture and both males and females in this culture are seen to smoke from very young
age. By applying this theory and linking this fact with the smoking habit of Gary, it can be
stated that smoking habit of the patient with more than 10 cigarettes per day has worsened the
situation. Therefore, I believe as a nurse I can engage in cognitive behavioural therapy as
well as smoking session therapy so that he can overcome the behaviour and develop better
quality life.
Another important social determinant of health that also remains intricately
associated with the condition of Gary is his poor socio-economic status. As they have poor
economic stability, they cannot afford to but organic foods which are nutrient dense. They are
mainly seen to buy cheap quality fast foods which are calorie dense. Therefore, they tend to